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news
HSBC UK National Cycling Centre (picture copyright British Cycling)Transgender cyclist Emily Bridges breaks silence to question “alleged ineligibility”
Transgender cyclist Emily Bridges says she ‘just wants to race competitively again’ after being told that she cannot compete in the women’s event at this weekend’s National Omnium Championships under current UCI guidelines.
In a statement released on Friday, Bridges said that she has been in contact with British Cycling and the UCI over the last six months and has provided the two governing bodies with “medical evidence that I meet the eligibility criteria for transgender female cyclists”.
The 21-year-old also criticised the coverage of her case in the British media, which she says has resulted in her being “relentlessly harassed and demonised” in recent weeks.
She said: “I am an athlete, and I just want to race competitively again, within the Regulations set by British Cycling and UCI after careful consideration of the research around transgender athletes.
“No one should have to choose between being who they are, and participating in the sport they love.”
Bridges was set to make her competitive debut as a female cyclist at the National Omnium Championships in Derby this weekend, taking on leading riders such as multiple Olympic champion Dame Laura Kenny.
After revealing her struggles with gender dysphoria in a Coming Out Day article written for Sky Sports in October 2020, Bridges started undergoing hormone therapy last year. Her testosterone levels are now sufficiently low to allow her to compete in women’s events under British Cycling’s Transgender and Non-Binary Participation Policy.
According to the latest version of the policy, transgender athletes are required to have testosterone levels below 5 nanomoles per litre for a year (men generally range between 10 and 30 nanomoles per litre) before being permitted to compete against other women.
However, British Cycling revealed on Wednesday that it had been informed by the UCI that “under their current guidelines Emily is not eligible to participate” at the championships in Derby.
The UCI told the national body that, because international ranking points are allocated at national championships, Bridges could only race once her eligibility to compete as a female in international competitions is confirmed, a process which is still ongoing.
In a statement released on Wednesday, British Cycling said: “We have been in close discussions with the UCI regarding Emily’s participation this weekend and have also engaged closely with Emily and her family regarding her transition and involvement in elite competitions.
“We acknowledge the decision of the UCI with regards to Emily’s participation, however we fully recognise her disappointment with today’s decision.”
Bridges responded to her exclusion on Friday evening, saying that she has been in contact with the UCI and British Cycling to request clarity concerning her ineligibility, and called on the two bodies to reconsider their decision.
Her statement reads:
For the last six months, I have been in contact with British Cycling and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) over the eligibility criteria I would need to meet as a transgender woman in order to race in the female category at the British National Omnium Championships this Saturday, 2 April 2022.
In that time, I have provided both British Cycling and UCI with medical evidence that I meet the eligibility criteria for transgender female cyclists, including that my testosterone level has been far below the limit prescribed by the Regulations for the last 12 months.
Despite the public announcement, I still have little clarity around their finding of my ineligibility under their regulations.
Bridges also criticised how her case has been handled online and in the British media, including alleged reports that some female competitors had threatened to boycott the event if Emily raced, which she says has led to her receiving “targeted abuse” on social media:
As is no surprise with most of the British media, I’ve been relentlessly harassed and demonised by those who have a specific agenda to push. They attack everything that isn’t the norm and print whatever is most likely to result in the highest engagement for their articles, and bring in advertising.
This is without care for the wellbeing of individuals or marginalised groups, and others are left to pick up the pieces due to their actions. Trans people are the latest of a long list of people to be treated this way, and unfortunately, without change, we won’t be the last.
I’ve had journalists at my front door every day harassing us for comment and story, my privacy has been totally violated over speculation around my eligibility and fairness to compete. I’ve had to deactivate my social media to prevent the targeted abuse I am receiving, and block websites to stop seeing them.
This is despite the fact I have not yet raced in the female category. I have been judged despite a total lack of evidence against me, purely because I am trans.
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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74 comments
Are you too young to remember:-
https://www.facebook.com/theracingcollective/posts/this-is-beryl-burton-...
How could we forget Beryl!
Non-facebook info: https://totalwomenscycling.com/lifestyle/interviews/beryl-burton-biography
Mate, if you deadname her, that's rule number one broken right there. Her name is Emily.
Then you say that she will "never be biologically female". That's transphobe speak, and pretty irrelevant to the topic.
So don't do the "If you put yourself out there in the media, you will get both good and bad written about you" thing. She's done something far harder than anything any of us are likely to do. It's not a "llfestyle choice": rates of self-harm and suicide are huge aming trans people. She's exposing herself to transphobia from ignorant and hateful people: don't be one of them.
I think your reply went to the wrong person (or I've been drunk posting again).
(Not sure what deadnaming is, but presumably something about using the wrong pronouns)
[/quote] Can you define what you mean by biologically female please?[/quote]
Easily. A biological female is one who remains doggedly seated at the table when it's time for another round.
...but what if it's table service?
Clearly a biological male wouldn't just let someone else bring his drinks for him! That explains why no-one has yet found depictions of waiters (or sushi conveyors) on the walls of paleolithic rock shelters. Men were real men, mammoths were real mammoths (not like these effete hairless elephants) etc.
As a biological male myself (I've got the male pattern baldness to prove it), I'm more than happy for someone to buy me drinks.
Can you?
Honest question from someone who isn't sure what the truth is, or if there is one.
If we can't agree a definition, should we do away with the categories, or simply let anyone decide their own?
I don't think there is a good one really as the term itself is ill-defined. You could interpret "biologically" as meaning the chromosomes (e.g. male = possessing Y chromosome, female = lacking Y chromosome) or it could be referring to the genes (SRy?), or hormone production or physical traits.
Ultimately, trying to find a measurable to determine male/female isn't really plausible as it seems like more of a continuum when you consider how much variation there is with hormone expression etc.
Male/female categories are mainly used as most sports have different performance levels between men and women. Equally, we could divide up competitions between height or weight which are easier to objectively measure.
Agreed but that's not all of it. There is an "actual safety" / "subjective safety" thing here too. Actual safety - (leaving aside elite sport sometimes being associated with really unhealthy lifestyles / practices e.g. doping, eating disorders etc.) this is actually across all sex / gender categories since we already know from e.g. revelations in gymnastics and football from recent years that high-level support is not free of people who use their position to abuse (young) althetes. FWIW this appears to be entirely coming from (cis) men - although it's mostly those people who currently fill these positions. Don't know about sport particularly but the risk to trans men from cis men is documented. I don't know about physical attacks on trans women from cis-women but trans women are known to be at higher risk (than the general population) to attacks from cis men.
Subjective safety - some cis women are clearly concerned about any changes putting them at more risk. Whatever the real risk factor (and not sure if there's any statistically reliable data) there are - currently - people who would feel uncomfortable here. I don't know how trans-individuals feel about sharing space either. That's my ignorance and I imagine it very much depends on the individual. For some it appears to be fundamental to their identity that they can of course.
"I have not yet raced in the female category. I have been judged despite a total lack of evidence against me, purely because I am trans"
I hate to be the one to point this out but gender is gender and sex is sex. What additional evidence is required to determine one's sex? To completely disregard this fact and lay all blame on social norms seems misguided.
You don't seem to have a good grasp of the complexities in biology
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